Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Spring cleaning, gardening, resting, creating, learning.

There are times when I have to think of what to say on a blog and there are times when I have way too many things to pick from to share! My thoughts have been buzzing about and our lives are full with good things, I just love spring and the season of life we are in these days!

Cleaning:I'm the type of person who actually enjoys cleaning and organizing, not because the task is fun, but because I REALLY enjoy the finished result. Few people can fully appreciate the picture below because I forgot to take a "before" shot, but if you saw our storage room before this past Sunday you saw literally a room that you couldn't walk through. If you took two steps in a row in any one direction you were on top of a pile of something. And then! I convinced Tim that with a little beer and good music it just might be fun to clean. :) We actually had lots of fun finding a place for everything. I actually said when we were finished that I kind of just wanted to hang out up there. Just sit in all the wonderful organization of our camping gear and instruments and luggage and snow sleds and books. :)Tim and I have this misfortune of both being VERY particular people when it comes to certain things. It's something we both work on especially in our marriage. One of these areas is our aesthetic style preference, but the saving grace is that we both have VERY similar styles when it comes to interior design. :) He got something we've both been oogling for a while.

A mid century modern wall unit. He's badly needed a "proper" work station to be able to edit films and work on his business in the new apartment. So we invested in a few pieces of what we hope will eventually be a full wall unit. It's so pretty!

Here are a few more pics of the place now that we've rearranged a few pieces and gathered up some of our favorite things.

And of course, now that spring is here and we're feeling more settled in our place, we're ready for planting season! These are the winter crops we transplanted (chard and spreckled bib lettuce) plus some basil and a tomato volunteer a friend gave to Tim for the warm season. (ha, warm vs. cold in CA is laughable). Hiding in the back is Tim's project, a bonsai tree. I've learned the fun fact that "bonsai" isn't a type of tree, just a style of pruning/gardening. Any tree or shrub can be a bonsai. This one was sad inside the house, so we're trying to revive its spirits out in the wide open sunshine of our rooftop. This weekend we hope to get about 3 more planters built and filled with veggies and goodness for the spring! Also I have a little succulent garden in the house....probably the only plant that could survive in our little corner by the alley. :)

Our real hope for gardening is to be able to grow almost everything we eat. If you know me well you probably already know this, but when people ask me why I'm a vegetarian the really real answer is "because I'm a Christian". This isn't to say you're a sinner if you eat meat. You're not, and I get into trouble here with quite a few people...but honestly, I don't think that ALL Christians have to come to the same conclusions and life decisions to still be in keeping with scripture. BUT, for me, in today's society with all its complexities and corruptions and complications, the most simple way to be sure that the daily and necessary action of eating food honors God is to be a vegetarian. I won't get into it here...I want to...but I wont.... :)

Other than these small, but lovely things, life is really good. Tim and I celebrate a year of marriage in a few weeks. It's truly something wonderful to celebrate. I've loved being in a space of reflection lately over the past year and where life's brought us. I feel like we both busted our butts under the weight of society and the world and now we've been given a season to rest, and grow and create and explore all the things we've always loved but have been too busy and crazy to pursue. We're reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's biography for a life group at church, cooking up new creations in the kitchen...Tim got a camera with our tax return that we hope to take camping in Yosemite soon, and a neighbor gave us a record player so we've been enjoying Dylan and Junip and JT and Elvis Costello on vinyl all the live long day. We also spent part of Sunday writing out our goals for ourselves and for our family for the rest of this year. I think spring is a good time to let the things that winter let lie dormant come back to life and grow.

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Why I blog...

This started as a working blog for an internship with my church. Three years later, I hope it can still be a point of dialogue about Kingdom Living. I believe that we are here on this earth to co-operate with our King to bring about change in a broken world. Tikun Olam, as the Jewish community calls it, is the idea that we work with God to heal this world. I hope to share some stories where I see this happening in real life today.